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A  Discourse  bEforethe^inai  Congregation. 

DECEMBER  16rH,  1888, 


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Annex 

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5~<h> 


Sunday  Law,  Liberty  and  License, 


A  Discourse  before  the  Sinai  Congregation, 

December    16th,    1888, 

IE.  GK 


Experience  is  the  great  task-master  of  mankind.  In  the  merciless 
school  of  sin,  suffering  and  failure,  man  learns  to  know  the  eternal  laws  of  his 
own  being.  That  knowledge  comes  to  him  not  at  once  ;  it  flashes  not  upon 
him  with  the  full  glory  of  the  noon  hour,  only  gradually  does  its  splendor 
unfold  itself  to  him.  Truth  is  a  sun  that  has  its  hours  of  rising  and  of 
setting,  its  eclipses  and  its  clouds.  Slowly  as  the  king  of  day  scales  the 
heaven's  heights,  and  contends  against  the  shadows  and  the  mists,  does 
truth  ascend  the  golden  steps  toward  the  zenith,  and  vigorously  has  it  to 
war  against  jealous  obstacles.  Through  the  mazes  of  error  man  is  led  to 
the  majesty  of  truth;  and  what  we  call  experience  is  but  the  remembrance 
of  the  road  traveled  o'er,  is  the  record  of  attempts  that  failed,  of  battles 
waged  with  doubtful  result,  of  victories  finally  accomplished.  When 
experience  hath  spoken,  experience  well  established  and  securely  grounded, 
theory,  airy  and  assumed,  must  lay  the  finger  of  silence  on  the  glib  lips. 
The  time  for  speculation  is  o'er,  when  from  the  fields  of  actual  life  are 
brought  home  the  rich  sheaves  or  the  ripe  fruits. 


Experience  now  gives  proof  that  the  weekly  interruption  of  labor 
through  the  day  of  rest,  corresponds  to  a  deeply  rooted  want  of  human 
nature,  and  is  thus  a  necessity  and  an  invaluable  blessing.  Popular 
prejudice  largely  believes  that  only  the  religious-minded  can  plead  for  the 
observation  of  the  Sabbath  day.  It  is,  according  to  this  opinion,  an  insti- 
tution of  the  church.  Those  that  have  weaned  themselves  of  priest  and 
preacher  need  not  shape  their  life  in  accordance  with  the  old  ecclesiastical 
prescriptions.  Whether  the  Sabbath  originally  was,  or  was  not  a  religious 
institution  I  must  for  the  moment  keep  in  abeyance;  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  on  this  point  that  a  day  of  rest  is  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of 
individual  and  of  society  at  large.  None  will  suspect  in  the  writings  of 
the  socialist  Proudhon  a  religious  bias,  or  accuse  him  of  sectarian  narrow- 
ness and  theological  fanaticism.  Still  in  his  booklet  on  the  celebration  of 
Sunday  ("  De  la  celebration  du  Dimanche"),  he  comes  to  the  conclusion 
just  worded  by  me,  through  considerations  of  a  purely  economic  and  moral 
kind.  Other  men,  and  not  alone  of  the  favored  classes,  but  also  from 
among  the  working  people,  have  expressed  themselves  to  the  same  effect. 
For  many  years  past  the  Swiss  societies  for  the  promotion  of  public  welfare 
have  been  busy  with  this  very  question.  They  have  offered  premiums  for 
the  best  solution;  they  have  by  speech  and  by  pen  agitated  for  a  more 
general  observation  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest.  Nor  is  Germany  indifferent, 
as  is  generally  assumed,  on  this  subject.  Government  and  private  associa- 
tions are  gathering  statistics  on  the  extent  of  Sunday  labor,  and  on  its 
effects  upon  the  moral  and  material  prosperity  of  the  people.  Dignitarise 
of  the  state,  generals,  authors,  professors,  leaders  of  workingmen,  con- 
servatists,  socialists,  all  are  raising  their  voice  to  insure  a  more  general 
cessation  from  labor  of  any  kind  throughout  the  German  empire,  and 
are  pleading  for  a  more  quiet  and  dignified  manner  of  spending  the 
day.  In  brief,  Proudhon  is  right  when  he  says  Sunday  rest  is  not  a  subject 
of  opinion,  but  is  founded  on  actual  knowledge.  It  is  a  well  established 
fact,  that  even  beasts  and  dead  machines  are  stronger  and  wear  out  less 
speedily,  if  allowed  to  share  in  the  periodical  rest  of  the  Sabbath.  In  the 
books  I  find  a  practical  example  of  this  in  a  story  about  two  men,  carriers 
of  goods  from  one  place  in  the  east  of  Germany  to  another  in  the  west, 
before  the  days  of  our  railroads.  To  cover  the  distance  between  the  two 
points,  eight  to  ten  weeks  were  consumed.  One  of  the  two  was  in  the  habit 
of  allowing  his  horses  and  his  vehicle  to  rest  over  Sunday,  while  the  other, 
grumbling  at  the  unnecessary  delay,  took  the  whim  in  one  of  their  expedi- 
tions to  push  on  regardless  of  the  day  of  rest.  In  this  wise  he  expected  to 
outstrip  his  competitor  by  at  least  seven  days.  The  companion  was  satis- 
fied, and  made  the  wager  that,  notwithstanding  his  stopping  over  every 
seventh  day,  he  would  be  the  first  to  reach  the  end  of  the  journey.  The 
wager  was  accepted,  and  the  result  showed  that  the  observer  of  the  Sabbath 
was  the  more  prudent  of  the  two  men,  for  actually  he  reached  his  destina- 
tion one  week  ahead  of  the  other;  and  besides  his  horses  and  wagon  were 
in  good  condition,  while  the  other  arrived  with  wagon  ruined,  and  with 


horses  over-tired,  over-worked  and  jaded.  This  story  is  not  taken  from  a 
Sunday-school  tract,  but  I  found  it  in  a  little  book  written  by  a  physician, 
named  Niemeyer,  who,  leaving  religious  considerations  out  of  the  scope  of 
his  inquiry,  pleads  strongly  for  the  observation  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest 
from  the  standpoint  of  hygiene.  Experience  further  seems  to  have  taught 
that  the  interruption  of  labor  should  follow  regularly  on  the  seventh 
pay  after  six  days  of  work.  The  French  revolution,  in  its  desire  to  turn  every- 
thing topsy-turvy,  abolished,  as  you  well  know,  the  weekly  Sabbath,  and 
substituted  for  it  the  decade;  that  is,  a  day  of  festivities  occurring  every 
ten  days — three  in  one  month.  We  have  the  testimony  of  a  working  man, 
who  during  this  time  lived  in  Paris,  that  the  new  arrangement  by  no  means 
conferred  the  benefits  of  the  old.  Whether  or  not  the  number  seven 
corresponds  to  a  physiological  law  as  Cabanis,  philosopher  and  physician 
both,  claims,  who  maintains  that  the  fluctuations  of  our  body's  temperature 
run  in  cycles  of  seven  days,  is  not  for  me  to  say,  but  I  may  be  allowed  to 
quote  again  the  words  of  Proudhon:  "  Shorten  the  week  by  one  day  and 
the  want  of  rest  is  not  yet  pressing,  but  lengthen  the  week  by  one  day  and 
you  have  over-fatigue.  Set  aside  every  three  days  half  a  day  for  rest,  and 
you  have  want  of  symmetry  and  plan.  Assign  after  twelve  days  of  work  two 
days  of  rest,  and  you  will  ruin  the  working  man  with  leisure,  after  having 
first  exhausted  him  with  labor."  In  truth,  the  best  lovers  of  the  people 
are  agreed  that  one  day  in  seven  is  the  best  arrangement,  and  experience 
bolsters  this  agreement. 

But  how  should  this  day  of  rest  be  celebrated?  It  may  not  be  super- 
fluous in  this  connection  to  cast  a  glance,  hasty  and  sketchy  at  the  history 
of  the  Sabbath,  as  far  as  we  can  trace  it.  I  quarrel  not  with  those  simple 
believers  for  whom  questions  of  this  kind  are  answered  in  the  biblical 
record.  I  do  not  desire  to  disturb  their  assurance  that  the  Sabbath  was 
instituted  by  God  himself.  The  opening  chapter  of  Genesis  is  indeed  a 
stirring  poem.  The  thought  that  after  the  completion  of  the  world,  God 
affixed  to  it  his  seal  of  approval  by  the  sign  of  the  Sabbath  is  strong  and 
uplifting.  That  thought  remains  true,  whether  we  read  the  signs  of  the 
heavens  according  to  a  new  key,  or  still  decipher  the  inscriptions  of  the 
vault  above  according  to  the  dialect  of  the  fathers.  The  critical  school  is 
deeply  conscious  of  the  moral  truths  crystallized  in  the  old  legends.  It 
can  spare  the  husk,  but  in  breaking  it,  sets  free  what  is  fundamental.  The 
Sabbath  in  a  seal  of  perfection,  a  witness  to  self  approval  of  work  done; 
and  it  remains  so  whether  we  locate  its  source  in  the  lands  of  earth  or  lift 
it  up  into  the  regions  of  the  heavens.  To  my  mind  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  Sabbath  was  originally  linked  to  the  worship  of  the  moon,  and  was  an 
institution  of  the  Shemites  in  those  removed  times  even  before  the  Hebrew 
had  differentiated  himself  from  his  kinsmen.  A  number  of  competent 
scholars  have  found  proof  of  the  observation  of  a  day  somewhat  like  to 
the  Sabbath  among  the  Assyrians.  Other  scholars  are  disinclined  to 
allow  this  construction  of  the  tablets  bearing  on  the  point.  No  matter 
whether  we  follow  one  party  or  the  other  in  this  controversy,  it  is  plain 


that  the  biblical  record  gives  sufficient  hint  to  suggest  that  the  Sabbath  was 
in  some  form  or  other  among  the  institutions  of  the  Hebrews  before  the 
Sinaitic  period.  In  Amos,  in  Isaiah,  and  in  other  passages  of  the  prophets, 
Sabbath  and  new  moon  are  quoted  in  one  breath.  But  little  observation 
was  necessary  to  teach  that  the  moon  consumed  twenty-eight  solar  days  in 
her  fickle  passage  across  the  nightly  sky,  and  that  every  seventh  day 
apparently  she  came  to  a  point  of  rest.  Hence  the  sacred  character  of 
the  number  seven;  hence,  also,  the  original  institution  of  the  Sabbath- 
day.  What  its  character  was  in  an  earlier  period,  chapter  4  of  I  £  Kings 
indicates.  There  the  woman  who  asks  of  her  husband  to  send  her  one  of  the 
young  men  and  one  of  the  asses,  in  order  to  visit  Elisha,  is  reproved  for 
her  desire  to  go  to  the  man  of  God,  because  "  it  is  neither  new  moon  nor 
Sabbath."  The  Sabbath-day  at  that  time  seems  to  have  been  a  day  for 
making  excursions  of  the  kind  here  described.  In  Deuteronomy  the  Sabbath 
is  ordained  as  a  social  institution;  "that  thy  man-servant  and  thy  maid- 
servant may  rest  as  well  as  thou"-  is  the  object  of  its  proclamation.  Slaves 
had  been  the  Israelites  in  Egypt.  The  slave  has  no  rest.  Israel,  mindful 
of  its  own  past,  should  afford  laboring  people  a  life  worthy  of  men,  free 
from  the  disgrace  and  the  outrage  of  thraldom.  The  theological  reas<  in 
adduced  in  the  decalogue  of  Exodus  is  the  production  of  a  much  later  age. 
There  the  Sabbath  is  ordained  because  God  rested  after  His  creation.  Xo 
want  of  the  human  soul,  no  necessity  of  man  is  its  root.  Its  object  is  to  be 
a  sign  between  God  and  Israel,  as  a  later  passage  amplifies  the  fourth 
commandment,  Exodus  31,  12-18.  In  the  controversies  on  the  Sabbath 
question  in  the  Jewish  camps,  a  caricature  of  this  assumption  on  the  part 
of  the  biblical  author  has  often  been  hurled  against  us.  It  has  in  all 
seriousness  been  argued  that  man  needed  not  the  Sabbath;  and  unless 
God  instituted  it  and  we  observed  it  for  religious  motives,  the  Sabbath-day 
had  no  function  and  brought  no  blessings  to  man.  The  example  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  with  disingenuous  scholarship  was  cited  in  proof  of  the 
proposition.  Had  they  not  been  as  strong  as  all  other  races,  had  they  not 
been  as  cultured  as  all  others,  had  they  not  been  successful  in  the  arts, 
victorious  in  the  wars,  had  they  not  speculated  on  the  deepest  themes  of 
philosophy,  and  all  this  without  having  a  Sabbath?  The  men  who  thus 
reason  forget  that  Rome  and  Greece  were  founded  on  slavery.  The  men 
of  leisure  need  indeed  no  Sabbath,  and  have  no  right  to  it.  Work  is  one 
term  of  the  Sabbath  equation,  rest  is  the  other.  Both  terms  are  essential. 
Both  are  B'rith,  (Aboth,  R.  Nathan).  The  avidity  with  which  the  lower 
classes  of  Rome  in  the  centuries  of  her  despair  and  decline,  embraced  the 
Sabbath  institution,  so  that  Josephus  could  say  that  there  was  no 
city,  either  Greek  or  barbarian,  whither  the  custom  of  the  seventh  day  of 
rest  had  not  come  (contra  Apion.  II,  39).  and  that  Seneca  uttered 
bitter  complaint  bewailing  the  imitation  of  the  Jewish  custom  of  the 
Sabbath,  that  Horace  and  Juvenal  hurled  the  sharpest  arrows  of  their 
sarcastic  contempt  against  the  Sabbath-observing  Jew  and  Roman,  plainly 
shows  how  weak  the  argument  is,  how  sore  its  need  among  the  working 
Romans. 


5 

I  cannot  suppress  my  surprise  at  the  fact  that  the  men,  (and  great 
Theologians  are  they)  who  conjured  from  the  ruins  Grece,  the  slave  house 
of  outward  beauty,  and  Rome,  whose  legions  carried  selfishness  raised  to  a 
political  principle,  from  the  laughing  Adriatic  to  the  mist-curtained  German 
Ocean,  and  tyranny  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  to  the  sands  of  the  Lybian 
desert,  to  prove  the  superfluity  of  the  Sabbath  unless  it  be  for  God,  should 
l)e  blinded  by  their  zeal  to  the  blasphemy  their  position  breathes.  Accord- 
ing to  them,  not  the  love  for  his  children,  but  mere  whim  and  caprice 
prompted  the  deity  when  hallowing  the  seventh  day.  The  God  that  Juda- 
ism teaches,  is  not  such.  If  He  instituted  the  day  of  rest,  it  was  not  for 
Himself  that  He  enacted  its  observance;  He  desired  to  benefit  His  children 
-  -the  sons  of  man,  and  whatever  blessings  are  wrapt  in  the  institiition,  they 
may  be  found  whatever  the  day  of  the  week  on  which  its  welcome  visit  is 
expected.  In  Talmudical  times  the  Sabbath  became  burdened  with  many 
legal  restrictions.  But  nevertheless  it  remained  a  day  of  joy.  Joy  is  the 
Leitmotif  in  its  varied  songs  for  the  Jew.  The  day  for  him  never,  even 
under  the  Atlas  of  prohibitions  superimposed  by  the  Rabbis,  was  a  prison- 
house.  It  was  the  day  of  human  freedom.  For  the  saying  of  the  New 
Testament,  "the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath" 
is  an  echo  of  a  well-known  Rabbinical  phrase.  As  such  a  day  for  man,  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  was  equally  far  removed  from  the  gloom  of  the  Puritan 
caricature  of  the  Biblical  day  of  rest,  as  it  was  from  the  boisterous  day  of 
revelry  and  debauchery  that  some  of  the  fanatics  of  what  is  falsely  called 
"  Personal  Freedom,"  would  have  tolerated  as  the  very  cornerstone  of  human 
rights.  Opposed  as  these  two  extremes  are,  they  meet  in  this  one  point : 
they  both  would  on  Sabbath  unman,  man.  The  Puritan  sets  the  day  aside 
to  ponder  and  brood  over  the  fall  of  man  and  its  consequences:  he  kindles 
the  fires  of  hell,  but  not  the  beaming  Sabbath  lamp.  The  besotted 
extremist,  in  the  other  camp,  would  brutalise  on  the  day  man;  he  lights 
the  ungodly  fire  of  lust.  The  Jew  has  read  the  intention  of  the  day. 
Who  knows  but  that  to  its  faithful  observance  he  owes  his  unparalelled 
power  of  resistance  to  persecution,  hatred,  hunger,  sword  and  pestilence? 

The  Sabbath,  as  a  joyful  day  of  rest,  should  first  benefit  the  body. 
Life  is  a  great  usurer.  It  watches  most  scrupulously  the  accounts  of  its 
depositors.  It  will  allow  no  overdrafts,  unless  repaid  most  amply  by 
compounded  interests  on  the  advances.  Woe  to  him  who  has  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  this  most  grasping  of  all  creditors  !  Life  stands  upon  the 
bond,  it  is  inexorable.  Now  every  stroke  of  the  hammer  on  the  anvil, 
every  line  of  the  pen,  every  thought  flowering  in  the  mind  is  paid  for  in 
the  currency  of  blood.  Blood  nurtures  the  muscles,  feeds  the  brain  and 
builds  the  nerves.  It  is  the  balance  that  must  always  be  to  our  credit  on 
the  ledger  of  life;  for  every  outlay  not  replaced  by  a  fresh  deposit  will  visit 
dire  consequences  on  him  that  is  neglectful.  And  life  now  is  still  more 
grasping  and  exhausting  than  ever  it  was  before. 

The  praises  of  modern  culture  and  its  great  accomplishments  have  been 
sung  in  every  key.  The  story  of  the  decisive  victory  over  nature's  minions 


6 

is  on  every  canvas.  The  very  pigments  on  the  painter's  palette  are  alive 
with  power  and  pride,  when  his  brush  would  reproduce  the  rush  and  the 
roar,  the  glow  and  glare,  the  whir  and  whirl  of  the  gigantic  modern  work- 
shop. The  fires  beam  upon  us;  the  anvils  clink;  the  molten  iron  hisses 
and  heaves  as  it  plunges  through  the  rills  of  sand,  in  quest  of  a  new 
guise.  In  the  lurid  light,  the  half  shaded  figures  of  the  workers  come  and 
go,  their  brawny  arms  bared,  their  soot-begrimed  faces  eager,  their  eye 
steadily  set  on  the  task  before  them.  Vulcan  risen  from  the  bowels  of  the 
earth— but  not  he  with  lamed  foot  as  the  ancient's  fancy  fashioned  him. 
To-day  his  heels  are  spurred  with  Mercury's  wings;  the  heavy  pincers  he 
carries  impede  not  his  flight.  But  is  this  glorious  idealisation  of  the 
modern  spirit  of  mechanical  inventiveness  and  skill,  and  boldness,  a  true 
mirror  of  the  realities  of  every-day  life?  Candor  compels  the  answer:  it  is 
not.  No  such  joy  is  mingled  with  the  rattle  and  jingle  of  the  real  foundry. 
Over  it  hangs  a  cloud.  The  price  of  progress  is  always  human  blood.  Not 
only  to  him  who  ventures  first  of  human  souls,  to  learn  a  new  secret,  into 
the  hidden  chambers  of  nature's  storehouse,  comes  death  at  the  threshold; 
not  only  he  who  hitches  to  the  chariot  of  advancing  humanity  a  new  force 
often  expires  e'er  the  turbulent  steed  submits  to  the  taming  hand;  but 
many  that  follow  pay  dearly  for  their  curiosity  or  their  daring.  Nature 
brooks  unwillingly  the  yoke;  she  is  a  treacherous  slave,  hating  the  masters' 
hand  ever  on  the  look-out  to  do  him  harm.  She  thirsteth  for  revenge. 
One  moment  of  relaxed  watchfulness  commits  to  her  pleasure  life  and  limb 
of  her  jailer.  A  sudden  crash,  to  splinters  are  shattered  the  stoutest  bars, 
the  strongest  bolts  of  her  prison  house.  But  such  moments  are  not  many; 
therefore,  with  greater  malice,  with  more  insidious  weapons,  she  wages  the 
war  of  destruction  under  the  mask  of  assumed  resignation  and  submission. 
She  hampers  and  hinders,  harrasses  and  harms  the  captor  wherever  and 
whenever  she  may.  Visit  the  vast  halls  of  our  industrial  establishments! 
The  air  teems  with  small  invisible  particles;  every  inhalation  deposits  into 
the  lungs  vegetable  or  animal  fibres,  or  metallic  dust.  Poisonous  vapors 
impregnate  the  atmosphere,  boding  no  good  to  him  who  is  called  to  tarry 
long  in  these  surroundings.  Even  where  law  and  humanity  join  hands  to 
provide  the  amplest  and  best  devises  to  assure  a  new  supply  of  air,  the 
danger  is  not  altogether  robbed  of  its  sharp  arrow.  Nature  built  in  every 
human  body  five  delicate  gateways  for  the  communication  of  the  mind  with 
the  outer  world.  Up  to  them  flows  constantly  the  tide  of  impressions;  and 
when  not  well  shielded  irreparable  injury  is  done.  Not  with  impunity  did 
we  steal  the  lightning's  flash.  The  glare  wearies  the  eye  and  dulls  it.  The 
cataract  of  noise  that  engine  and  hammer,  wheel  and  needle,  vie  with  each 
other  to  produce,  soon  destroys  the  finer  sensitiveness  of  the  ear.  And 
furthermore  the  work  imposed  demands  a  certain  position  unrelieved  for 
hours  and  hours.  In  consequence  certain  muscles  are  abnormally  developed, 
while  others  shrivel  and  shrink.  The  spine  curves,  the  chest  narrows;  the 
symmetry  of  the  body  is  broken;  the  natural  current  of  the  blood  impeded. 
Modern  medicine  catalogues  a  number  of  degenerations,  deformities  and 


abnormal  enlargements  which  are  directly  due  to  the  necessities  of  our 
industrial  system.  Almost  every  profession  and  every  occupation  brings  in 
its  wake  certain  ailments  peculiar  to  it.  The  well-wisher  of  humanity  is 
thus  confronted  with  a  most  serious  problem. 

These  deliterious  influences  must  be  counteracted;  the  avenues  to 
health  must  be  reopened.  But  how?  The  spells  of  sleep  between  the 
stretches  of  waking  and  wasting  work  are  not  sufficient  for  complete 
restoration.  The  blood  burned  is  not  refreshed  enough,  and  not  as  large 
a  stock  of  new  fuel  as  is  needed,  is  laid  in  by  the  nightly  visit  to  the  land 
of  dreams.  Too  soon  the  jar  and  the  jostle,  the  din  and  the  tumult  of 
street  and  factory  resume  their  deafening  rivalry.  The  nerves  half  re- 
built, the  brain  half  replenished  by  the  night's  silence  and  sleep,  are 
too  soon  restrung  to  a  high  pitch  and  strain.  Every  recurrent  day 
weakens  the  power  of  the  senses  to  transmit  correct  impressions  from 
without  and  of  the  central  organ  to  receive  them,  and  to  act  upon  them  by 
directing  and  adjusting  the  execution  of  volition  from  within.  A  pause  of 
longer  duration  is  needed,  and  of  periodic  regularity,  to  refill  the  treasure- 
house  of  life  energy.  Physicians  are  of  one  opinion  on  this  score.  The 
lungs  irritated  during  the  whole  week,  the  tubes  clogged  with  the  soot  and 
the  fibres  of  the  shop,  the  blood  tainted  with  poisons  and  thinned,  the  body 
twisted  out  of  shape  over  the  desk  or  at  the  bench:  they  all  cry  out  for  a 
whole  day  of  freedom  from  exposure  and  outrage.  A  whole  day  to  expel 
the  injurious  accumulations  of  the  week,  or  to  stretch  again  into  position 
the  spine,  to  give  the  cramped  chest  the  liberty  to  expand,  and  the  pressed 
liver  to  act  normally.  The  day  of  rest  is  the  only  prophylactic  against  the 
deterioration  of  the  race  through  unchecked  progression  of  the  abnormities 
or  the  deformities  that  to-day  lurk  under  every  boiler,  and  threaten  not 
only  the  wage-worker,  but  also  the  merchant  and  the  scholar. 

But  with  a  freer  movement  of  lung  and  a  fuller  flow  of  rewarmed  blood, 
comes  to  man  the  desire  for  activity.  For  the  animal,  rest  is  cessation  from 
exercise.  Man  not  being  an  animal,  cannot  rest  inactively.  Rest  for  man 
must  become  recreation.  It  means  change  of  activity  and  change  of  surround- 
ings. The  Sabbath  cannot  be  spent  in  idleness.  Idleness  is  as  great  a 
weight  upon  man  as  is  over-exertion.  From  idleness  comes  ennui,  the 
source  of  all  mischief,  the  root  of  all  sin.  Even  on  the  day  of  rest,  man 
needs  an  occupation,  craves  one,  but  that  occupation  must  be  different  from 
the  attention  and  activity  of  the  week.  For  this  reason  the  day  of  rest  is 
intended,  by  nature  and  by  God,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  higher  things 
and  the  higher  possessions  of  man.  Man  has  not  merely  a  body,  he  has  a 
mind.  The  whir  and  whirl  of  the  week  days'  work  gives  to  but  the  chosen 
few  the  time  to  even  catch  a  faint  glimpse  through  the  cracks  of  the  door 
of  the  splendor  of  the  palace  chamber  of  thought.  The  burdens  of  the 
daily  work  are  so  great  that,  when  with  the  nightfall  it  is  lifted,  the  mind 
has  not  the  elasticity  to  seek  admission  to  the  audience  hall  of  knowledge. 
But  with  a  full  freedom  of  the  day  of  rest  the  mind  demands  its  rights. 
To  spend  a  large  portion  of  the  weekly  day  of  freedom  in  the  cultivation  of 


8 

our  mind  is  not  sinful.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  but  following  the  hints  worked 
into  the  very  fibre  of  our  nature.  Change  of  occupation  includes  change 
of  interests.  When  the  eye  has  been  riveted  on  a  bright  surface  for  a  long 
time,  the  glare  becomes  intolerable  and  painful.  The  organ  hungers  for 
relief.  It  is  not  advisable  to  drop  the  lids  and  shut  out  all  rays;  this 
involves  an  effort,  and  the  pressure  is  moreover  not  relaxed.  Before  the 
closed  eye  will  flit  and  dance  sparks  due  to  the  continued  nerve  action. 
But  turn  in  such  moments  of  fatigue  away  from  the  flaming  lines,  and  fix 
your  gaze  on  darker  grounds,  the  sensation  of  pain  will  immediately  be 
soothed  into  that  of  grateful  pleasure.  In  the  same  manner  the  mind  that 
during  the  week  was  intensely  active  or  concentrated  on  one  thing,  cannot 
at  once,  without  injury,  pass  from  one  pole  of  cerebral  excitement  to  the 
other  pole  of  total  torpidity.  Were  the  attempt  made  the  chain  of  ideas 
would  roll  on  as  if  wound  on  a  self -uncoiling  bobin.  Change  of  activity 
diversion  of  attention  to  a  new  field  is  the  proper  relief  to  apply.  The 
bookish  man  had  better  hitch  his  thoughts  to  the  donkey  cart  of  the 
practical  things  of  life,  while  the  man  of  the  desk  and  the  cobbler  at  the 
bench  turn  to  regions  whither,  neither  the  figures  of  Ledger  nor  the 
measures  of  the  foot  can  follow.  The  Sunday  newspaper  is  now  this 
cannot  be  gainsaid-  the  sole  means  of  mental  diversion  for  the  preponder- 
ating majority  of  our  people.  Against  this  beneficial  agent  a  crusade  is 
preached  in  our  midst.  I,  for  one,  fail  to  understand  the  zeal  of  the  aggres- 
sive party.  The  work  on  the  Sunday  issue  is  done  almost  entirely  before 
the  Sabbath  begins.  The  movement  can  thus  not  be  prompted  by  a  desire 
to  insure  a  day  of  rest  to  the  staff  of  the  paper;  this  would  lead  to  the 
suspension  of  Monday's  issue.  The  old  distinction  between  sacred  things 
and  the  things  secular  is  the  moving  spirit  of  the  protest.  It  is  an  after- 
glow of  the  old  Calvinistic  theology.  This  world  is  under  the  curse  of  sin; 
its  affairs  are  secondary  to  the  eternalities  of  God's  kingdom.  From  that 
kingdom  man  is  excluded;  his  thought  should  be  wrapt  in  the  scheme  of 
salvation.  But  life  is  stronger  than  dogma.  The  realities  of  hunger  of 
ambition  and  their  retinue  knock  at  the  gate;  they  must  be  admitted.  The 
week  is  turned  over  to  their  sway:  but  with  heavy  heart  should  this  con- 
cession to  the  sinful  flesh  jbe  made!  Xo  smile  must  illumine  this  vale  of 
tears:  no  pleasure,  however  innocent,  be  indulged  in.  The  gloom  of  sin 
must  not  be  forgotten.  And  especially  on  the  Lord's  day  must  no  thought 
of  worldliness  be  given  audience.  Six  days'  slavery  to  the  devil :  one 
day  exclusively  for  God  !  The  drudgery  of  work  must  be  replaced  by 
the  dreariness  of  worship.  The  Puritanical  Sabbath  is  the  outgrowth 
of  Calvinic  theology  not  a  copy  of  the  Sabbath  of  the  Talmud.  If  visits 
to  the  circus,  the  theatre,  are  discountenanced  by  OUT  good  doctors  of  the 
Greek  age,  their  motive  was  the  desire  to  keep  from  moral  contamination 
their  people's  heart.  The  shadow  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  hovers 
over  the  horizon  and  tempers  the  joy  of  the  Rabbis  who  lived  during  and 
right  after  the  catastrophe.  But  the  Sabbath  was  directly  exempt  from 
whatever  restrictions  the  sad  recollections  may  have  placed  upon  the 


9 

ebulition  of  gladness  on  other  days.  Work  was  indeed  prohibited,  but 
never  art  (CHOKMAH).  They  would  never  have  dreamt  of  suppressing 
the  reading  of  a  newspaper.  Of  course,  the  Sunday  paper  is  busy  with  the 
affairs  of  this  world.  But  this  alone  does  not  enlist  it  into  the  army  of  cor- 
ruption. For  thousands  and  thousands  it  is  the  only  messenger  of  the 
higher  intellectuality  that  is  within  their  reach.  It  brings  to  them  not 
merely  the  news  of  the  day,  circling  for  them  the  globe;  but  it  opens  to 
them  the  life  of  other  climes,  countries  and  classes,  and  thus  awakens 
the  slumbering  consciousness  of  the  fundamental  unity  of  all  hidden 
under  the  galling  differences  on  the  surface.  It  discourses  in  a 
popular  style  on  the  problems  of  the  sciences,  and  photographs  the  advance 
of  discovery  and  invention.  It  discusses  the  questions  of  morality,  both 
applied  and  pure;  it  is  a  library  in  itself,  an  epitome  of  current  knowledge; 
it  is  an  educator.  If  now  it  be  said  that  the  paper  of  the  day  is  not  true  to 
its  mission,  the  objection  weighs,  if  true,  as  heavily  against  the  week  day 
issue.  Bad  is  bad  on  Sunday  as  on  Monday.  The  sensational  gossiper  is 
as  intolerable  on  Wednesday  as  he  is  on  the  "  Lord's  day."  The  shortcoming 
of  the  press  have  been  exaggerated,  the  good  it  works  steadily  minimised. 
Take  our  Sunday  issues  all  in  all;  they  are  a  powerful  instrument  wielded 
for  the  raising  of  the  mental  level  of  the  masses. 

The  opening  of  the  reading-room  of  the  Public  Libray  shocked  at  first 
the  sensibilities  of  some  and  roused  a  storm  of  objections.  Yet  I  doubt 
whether  there  be  those  to-day  among  us  wlio  would  undo  the  measure.  To 
visit  under  Tyndal's  guidance  the  Alps,  and  learn  from  his  lips  the  history 
of  their  birth  and  growth;  to  read  the  rocks  with  Lyell,  and  to  watch  the 
.worm  with  Darwin;  to  study  the  republic  of  the  ants  with  Lubbock, 
and  with  Proctor  the  sun:  to  cross  with  Stanley  the  dark  continent;  to 
sound  the  depth  of  the  ocean  with  the  crew  of  the  "Challenger";  is  a 
pleasure  that  few  can  seek  in  the  brief  hours  after  the  daily  task  is  done. 
Is  this  sinful?  Is  Longfellow  or  Whittier  not  an  unmitred  priest  at  the 
altar  of  truth?  Is  it  wrong  to  laugh  at  the  follies  of  men  in  this  vanity 
fair-life,  and  be  warned  by  the  pointed  pen  of  Thackeray?  Is  Ruth 
alone  typical  of  womanly  loVe?  Are  not  Enid,  and  Maud,  the  miller's 
daughter,  Lady  Clare,  worthy  sisters  of  hers  in  the  gallery  and  gallaxy 
of  true  and  pure  womanhood?  Are  Lowell  and  Browning  less  inspiring 
than  are  the  books  of  Kings  or  the  Revelation  of  St.  John?  Emerson  and 
Elliot,  and  Robert  Elsmere  not  good  Sunday  reading?  The  answer  is 
easily  found;  it  cannot  but  be  in  the  affirmative. 

How7  many  have  the  time  to  worship  at  the  shrine  of  Art,  or  care  for  its 
message  while  the  wheels  are  spinning  round  and  the  belts  are  tightened? 
The  truly  beautiful  is  always  a  reflection  of  the  truly  good.  The  picture 
gallery  is  a  church  to-day,  as  formerly  the  church  was  a  picture  gallery. 
None  who  feels  for  and  with  the  people  can  but  congratulate  the  manage- 
ment of  our  promising  Art-Institute  upon  the  step,  resolved  upon  by  them, 
to  open  on  Sunday  afternoon  the  doors  of  their  collection.  Reggio  and 
Rembrandt,  Angelo  and  Murillo,  Raphael  and  Titian,  Cornelius  and  Kaul- 


10 

bach,  cannot  preach  a  low  view  of  duty.  Fanaticism  which  would  hush  the 
sermon  breathed  upon  the  canvas  overshoots  the  mark.  The  twin-sisters  of 
painting  and  sculpture.  Music  and  Drama,  will  also  find  a  hearing  on  the  day 
of  rest.  Music  of  a  debased  and  debasing  kind,  is  always  baneful.  It  derides 
its  own  parentage.  But  a  symphony  by  Beethoven  and  Brahms,  a  sonata  by 
Mozart,  an  oratorio  by  Mendelssohn  and  Hay  den,  or  Hsendl;  a  chorus  from 
Parcival.  a  powerful  overture  by  Meyerbeer,  and  even  the  lighter  children 
of  melody  if  pure  and  chaste,  chime  as  harmoniously  in  with  the  spirit  of 
the  day  as  does  a  Te  Deum  by  Palestra  or  a  Mass  by  Verdi.  The  stage, 
decried  as  the  arch-enemy  of  the  church,  is  a  potent  ally.  The  piece  that 
panders  to  the  sensual  and  the  brutal  in  man  is  objectionable  on  any  day. 
So  is  also  on  Sunday  the  pulpit  that  caters  to  sensationalism.  As  the 
Germans  call  it,  the  stage  are  the  boards  that  signify  the  world.  That  is 
its  mission.  Shakspeare,  Schiller,  Goethe,  and  all  that  portray  the  eternal 
conflicts  of  the  human  heart  and  the  contrasts  of  the  human  life,  are  the 
most  efficient  aids  to  the  preacher  in  his  endeavors  to  lift  man  above  him- 
self. It  has  been  said  that  the  stage  pictures  vice.  Perhaps  it  does,  but  it 
does  not  glorify  it.  Where  even  the  fallen  are  conjured  from  their  glitter- 
ing palace  of  shame,  through  them  quivers  the  appeal  of  a  humanity  that 
recognises  the  sister,  even  when  burdened  with  sin,  and  warns  not  to  judge 
lest  we  be  judged.  Goodness,  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view,  may  be 
lacking  in  interest.  "  Faust  is  not  good,  Mephistopheles  is  candidly  exe- 
crable," Macbeth  is  a  murderer.  But  what  of  that?  Do  we  not  read  in 
these  characters  the  enigma  of  our  own  life?  Through  the  true  drama 
runs  the  sentiment: 

"  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends. 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will." 

Such  conviction  cannot  bring  harm  to  a  people,  though  it  be  taught  on 
Sunday.  If,  of  course,  beauty  and  recreation  are  in  themselves  sinful,  if  man 
is  depraved,  if  nature  is  under  the  curse  of  sin,  if  the  Sunday  have  no  other 
object  than  to  be  a  constant  memento  of  man's  sinf  ulness,  all  these  agencies 
which  correspond  to  a  natural  want  of  man,  #re  out  of  harmony  with  the 
purposes  of  the  day  of  rest.  But  human  nature  cannot  be  artificially 
outraged,  it  will  assert  its  rights,  and  unless  these  rights  are  legitimately 
conceded,  their  satisfaction  is  sought  in  illegitimate  direction.  Close  your 
libraries,  close  your  art  rooms,  hush  the  music  of  the  concert  hall,  lock  the 
doors  that  lead  to  the  temples  where  the  world's  show  and  the  world's 
substance  is  acted  out  in  types  created  by  master  minds,  and  you  will  drive 
the  masses  into  the  den  of  vice,  and  instead  of  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of 
beauty,  they  will  bend  the  knee  to  gods  of  wine.  Action  and  reaction  are 
always  equal,  and  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  decide  which  of  the  two  is  cause 
and  which  is  effect.  Our  ideas  have  changed.  It  is  not  the  foreigner  that 
has  weakened  the  foundations  of  Puritanism.  There  is  much  in  Puritanism 
that  demands  unstinted  approval  and  admiration.  Our  state  and  union 
we  much  to  the  sturdy  character,  the  streak  of  Puritanism  which  runs 


11 

through  our  people,  a  heritage  of  the  fathers  of  Plymouth  rock.  But  the 
new  age  has  come  with  new  ideas.  Character  to-day  is  built  on  the  same 
lines  as  of  old,  but  by  new  means,  new  methods.  The  spirit  of  scientific 
investigation  opening  up  nature's  secret  to  us,  has  given  the  death 
blow  to  the  dogma  that  nature  is  sinful  and  that  man  is  degraded. 
Man  by  birth  is  neither  degraded,  nor  is  he  divine;  but  he  may  become 
divine,  and  he  may  be  degraded;  and  those  that  have  the  best  interests  of 
man  at  heart,  must  be  careful  of  their  words  and  cautious  in  their  methods. 
In  the  conflicts  of  modern  times,  everything  must  be  used  that  tends  "to 
lift  man  above  himself."  The  mind  needs  culture,  and  the  day  of  rest  is 
for  the  thousands  the  only  day  to  satisfy  the  want.  Beauty  and  melody  are 
potent  factors  in  the  upbuilding  of  human  character:  therefore  the  day  of  rest 
is  not  violated  by  allowing  these  factors  to  play  upon  men,  women  and 
children. 

Of  course,  intellectual  and  aesthetic  culture  are  but  stepping 
stones  to  moral  culture,  and  the  day  of  rest  should  also  be  sacred  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  moral  element  in  man.  That  is  the  special  function  of 
the  church  and  the  temple.  Life  distracts  and  life  narrows.  Man  becomes 
a  something  in  consequence  of  this  distraction  and  this  concentration. 
Division  of  labor  has  in  every  walk  of  life  progressed  so  far  that  no  one  in 
his  work  attains  completeness.  Day  in,  day  out,  making  the  same  thing 
over  and  over  again,  we  are  in  danger  of  being  reduced  to  a  mere  automaton. 
Under  this  specialization,  we  lose  consciousness  of  our  "  man-ness."  Reli- 
gion comes  as  the  preacher  of  the  truth  that  man  is  not  something,  but 
some  one,  and  that  he  as  some  one  belongs  to  a  larger  life,  is  associated 
with  others  that  are  some  one,  and  is  kin  to  that  life  which  is  the  all  in  all, 
and  which  in  an  attempt  to  describe  it  and  bring  it  near  unto  us,  we  call 
"  our  God,  our  Father  who  is  in  heaven."  For  this  reason  religious  culture, 
religious  exercises,  service  and  sermon  are  an  integral  part  of  the  proper 
celebration  of  the  Sabbath.  The  hours  of  the  morning  of  the  Sabbath-day 
should  undoubtedly  be  devoted  to  religious  aspirations,  the  afternoon  may 
be  consecrated  to  the  other  agencies  of  culture.  It  is  argued  that  the 
Sunday  newspaper  and  the  qther  things  conflict  with  the  attendance  in 
churches.  The  causes  lie  deeper.  Let  the  church  search,  and  the  temple 
as  well,  her  own  conduct  and  her  own  methods,  and  all  of  us  will  perhaps 
discover  that  the  evil  of  religious  indifference  is  largely 'due  to  our  own 
shortcomings.  The  church  has  become  not  the  home  of  the  lame  and  the 
burdened,  the  weak  and  the  lowly.  It  is  the  luxury  of  the  rich,  of  the 
chosen  favored  sons  in  the  family  of  mankind.  The  jargon  of  church  and 
temple  alike  is  the  dry-rot  of  dogmatism,  not  the  full-blown  rose  of  duty. 
What  attraction  lies  in  hearing  over  and  over  again  the  ancient  controver- 
sies or  the  old  disputes  of  scholastic  dogmatists?  Man  to-day  has  outgrown 
the  fears  of  childhood,  and  the  fires  of  hell  will  not  strike  terror  to  his  heart, 
so  that  driven  by  anguish  and  anxiety  he  should  flee  to  the  altar  of  God 
und  seek  there  an  asylum  from  the  pursuer.  Or  the  pulpit  rivals  the 
circus-clown !  Mountebanks  with  shallow  verbiage  usurp  the  places  where 


12 

men  of  sound  scholarship  should  teach.  They  attract,  indeed,  many,  but 
disgust  countless  thousands  more,  and  do  more  harm  than  short -sighted 
admirers  will  admit! 

The  light  of  religion  must  be  thrown  on  the  issues  of  the  day.  The 
whole  world  is  God's  creation.  There  is  in  the  scale  of  Godliness  nothing 
great  and  nothing  small.  The  contrasts  of  modern  life,  the  burdens  of  modern 
problems  must  be  eased:  and  if  this  were  the  ambition  of  the  preachers,  no 
doubt  is  in  my  mind  but  the  Sunday  would  again  become  for  the  thousands 
a  welcome  opportunity  to  visit  the  shrine  of  God.  To  the  field  of  moral  cul- 
ture belongs  also  the  cultivation  of  friendship.  The  day  of  rest  is  sacred  to 
the  family,  is  sacred  to  the  intercourse  of  soul  with  soul.  On  that  day  father 
should  meet  son  and  mother  meet  daughter,  each  one  looking  into  the  eye 
and  into  the  heart  of  the  other,  read  of  the  week's  accomplishments  and 
remember  the  week's  anxieties;  and  thus  giving  and  drawing  strength  from 
the  sweet  covenant  of  love,  become  stronger  again  for  the  week's  wraiting 
work,  and  better  for  the  week's  demanding  duty.  Moral  culture  may  come 
through  the  whispered  fragrance  of  the  rose  and  the  soft  waving  of  the 
foliage  of  the  trees.  In  proper  season  to  visit  the  parks,  to  recline  at  the 
breast  of  nature  in  spring  time,  is  a  profitable  way  of  spending  the  day  of 
rest.  There  we  find  "  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything."  How  many  of  the  children  of 
the  city,  even  in  the  faintest  manner,  know  aught  of  the  hidden  beauties 
of  the  fields,  of  the  music  of  the  brooks,  and  of  the  murmuring  of  the 
lakes':'  Pent  up  in  their  pens  and  crowded  and  huddled  together  in  their 
tenement  lodgings,  whither  scarce  ever  the  full  ray  of  the  sun  penetrates, 
breathing  hour  after  hour  the  heavily  laden  atmosphere  of  the  workshop 
and  the  mingled  vapors  of  their  own  restricted  quarters,  their  lungs  and 
their  body  need  the  rejuvenating  elixir  of  hours  spent  in  the  open  air  in 
the  sunshine,  under  the  trees.  If  in  company  of  their  own  family  they 
will  be  safe  from  the  temptations  that  beset  him  who  seeks  pleasure 
selfishly.  Intercourse  with  nature  on  the  Sabbath-day  is  not  sinful,  it  is 
saintly.  Remove  the  sting  of  the  forbidden  fruit  and  its  charm  from  these 
innocent  joys,  and  you  need  not  fear  that  injurious  pleasures  will  be  sought. 
The  revelry  deplorable  on  any  day  and  which  is  most  noticeable  on  Sunday, 
is  not  a  characteristic  of  the  German.  Have  they  who  of  late  have  wa.sted 
much  eloquence  in  their  attack  on  the  German  Sabbath-breaker,  ever 
stopped  to  think  why  it  is  that  in  Europe  and  in  Germany,  while  the  Sab- 
bath is  not  observed  in  the  Puritan  fashion,  yet  scarce  ever  one  meets  in 
the  streets  the  reeling  figure  of  a  man  intoxicated  or  hears  the  furious  cries 
of  one  frenzied  by  alcoholic  drink?  It  is  because  nature  is  open,  because  the 
family  is  together  on  that  day,  because  what  joys  are  sought  remain  joys. 
that  is  to  say,  innocent  and  not  selfish;  it  is  because  public  opinion  has  not 
affixed  the  stigma  of  sin  to  certain  things  that  may  be  in  their  excess  de- 
plorable, but  which  partaken  of  as  the  true  man  will  partake  of  them,  are 
absolutely  harmless.  It  is  because  love  throws  her  armor  around  husband 
or  son  and  keeps  him  from  besotting  himself,  knowing  that  wife  or  sister 


13 

would  spurn  him  from  her  company  were  he  to  court  the  passionate 
embrace  of  fiery  drinks. 

What  now  should  the  state  do?  This  let  me  in  conclusion  inquire  into 
in  regard  to  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath!  Religion  and  state  are  hap- 
pily divorced.  Their  marriage  was  always  illegitimate,  and  if  the  Sabbath 
is  observed  merely  on  religious  ground,  the  state  ought  to  have  no  concern 
with  it.  But  the  state  has  the  function  to  be  the  guardian  of  the  com- 
munity's interest,  to  be  the  protector  of  the  weaker  in  the  community. 
Selfishness  is  as  yet,  even  according  to  the  open  profession  of  the  writers  on 
economic  subjects,  the  sole  motive  of  action  in  industrial  mercantile  life. 
The  selfishness  of  an  individual  in  the  vast  chain  of  mercantile  exchanges, 
produces  almost  of  necessity  the  selfishness  of  all  others.  As  competition  is 
the  highest  law  of  trade,  every  advantage  gained  by  one  must  be  striven 
after  by  all  others.  As  things  are,  man  as  considered  a  factor  in  industrial 
life,  lias  become  a  mere  hand,  a  tool,  a  thing.  Competition  allows  not  to 
measure  him  by  another  standard  and  to  treat  him  according  to  other 
precepts  of  morality.  Therefore,  it  is  the  state's  duty  to  watch  that  not  the 
.selfishness  of  the  worst  demand,  as  a  consequence,  the  succession  of  the 
selfishness  of  the  less  bad,  or  even  of  the  best.  Every  man  should,  by 
law.  be  guaranteed  the  enjoyment  of  the  day  of  rest.  Remove  the  Sunday 
laws,  as  far  as  they  apply  to  this  guarantee  from  our  statute  books,  and 
competition  will  soon  have  effected  that  for  six  days'  hire  seven  days  work 
will  be  exacted  from  all.  The  misery  of  the  masses  under  our  present 
system  will  always  be  great  enough  to  supply,  under  the  higher  sceptre  of 
starvation  threatened,  the  demand  for  men  to  work  seven  days  at  pay  of 
six.  Of  course,  in  the  long-run,  better  work  is  turned  out  by.  the  hands 
that  rest  one  day  in  seven.  But  what  cares  grasping  selfishness  for  ulterior 
advantages?  It  is  the  present,  immediate  profit,  that  it  craves  for.  Unless 
hindered,  it  will  disregard  humanity  and  future  benefits  for  the  gratification 
of  its  greed.  To  prevent  this  patent  danger  is  the  duty  of  the  state.  Fur- 
ther than  this,  and  of  course  the  maintenance  and  the  guardianship  of  public 
peace  and  the  prevention  of  interference  by  the  one  with  the  rights  of  the 
other,  the  state  has  no  concern  with  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath.  Educa- 
-iion  will,  in  the  course  of  time,  tend  to  give  the  American  people  a  Sabbath 
day  of  uniform  character.  It  will  be  what  the  day  of  rest  is  intended  for,  a 
day  for  man  and  by  man,  for  the  higher  life  of  man,  cultivation  of  the  higher 
things  of  life,  and  the  study  of  the  higher  themes  of  life,  a  day  which  will 
be  free  from  the  riot,  the  revelry,  the  boisterousness,  the  drunkenness  of 
the  fanatics,  of  what  they  call  falsely  the  personal  freedom  to  intoxicate 
themselves  whenever  they  choose,  and  equally  free  from  the  narrowness  or 
fanaticism  of  Puritan  dogmatism.  It  will  be  a  day  whereon  the  church  will 
have  a  wider  circle  of  friends  than  now%  and  a  deeper  influence,  but  a  day 
whereon  art  and  music,  authors  and  students  will  also  dispense  blessings. 

On  the  morn  of  the  day  of  nature's  resurrection  to  new  life,  in  Goathe's 
Faust,  the  student  from  his  dingy  study  and  the  narrow  streets  of  the 
town,  hurries  through  the  gates,  crosses  the  ditch  and  seeks  the  open  air  of 


14 

the  country.    With  him  many  wend  their  way  in  search  after  the  breezes  of 
early  spring. 

Hier  ist  des  Volkes  wahrer  Himmel, 
Zufrieden  jauchzet  Gross  und  Klein, 
Hier  bin  ich  Mensch,  hier  darf  zcfe's  sein. 

Hier  bin  ich  Mensch.  So  comes  it  to  him  with  the  full  tide  of  a  new 
life,  a  new  life  around  about  him.  The  day  of  rest  is  in  the  Christian 
church  the  day  of  the  resurrection,  but  as  our  Goethe  says, 

Sie  feiern  die  Auferstehung  des  Hernn, 
Denn  sie  sind  selber  auferstanden. 

The  day  of  rest,  this  is  the  truth  of  the  Christian  dogma,  is  the  day 
whereon  each  man  rises  to  the  higher  life.  Hier  bin  ich  Mensch.  A  day 
whereon  comes  to  us  the  thought,  the  inspiration,  the  knowledge  that, 
regardless  of  the  contrasts  of  the  week,  free  from  the  cares  and  the  concerns 
of  the  week  day,  free  and  larger  than  its  concentrations,  and  broader  than 
its  limitations,  is  the  life  of  man.  The  day  of  rest  proclaims  to  each  one. 
Hier  bist  Du  Mensch;  now  "  Thou  art  a  man,  the  son,  the  image  of  God." 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


B 


